Mother's Day

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

Hopefully I get the chance to talk to my mom today but in any case I want to wish her a very Happy Mother's Day! I hope that you and dad get to spend a nice day together enjoying yourselves doing something fun and relaxing. I know you have been working very hard recently so you deserve to take some time off to yourself. Hopefully the knowledge that I am ok and everything is going well out here will make you feel a little relieved about the situation and allow you to relax some more. Also, I want to wish a Happy Mother's Day all friends and family that are Mom's, and thank them for their continued support and the love they have given and blessed me with over the years. I know many people are reading this blog so that they can keep track of how I am doing and how things are going and I want to thank all of you as well for making comments and showing me your support.

While along the lines of me being thankful, I want to thank all those very much who have sent care packages. Again, thank you mom for being so supportive to me but also to my platoon by sending toys and goodies for me to pass out to the guys. I really am lucky to have the support system that I have and it is amazing to be able to rely and lean on everyone back home especially with me half way around the world. I can really see just in the dynamic of my platoon that not everyone is as lucky and those that are as fortunate in some ways are not in others. I have everything I could ask for. Close Family Friends sending packages with hygiene products, a incredibly loving girlfriend to send me anything and everything I ask for, and family that will always be there for me.

So, now that I have adequately given a brief thanks to my mom and all those who are continually supporting me, let me describe a little bit about Mother's Day in Iraq.

Today was a very long and tiring day to say the least. This morning we were up bright and early around 0500 to start preparations for the days missions. Typically this consists of getting all vehicles and gear ready to roll, loading up all weapons, doing pre-combat checks and inspections on personnel and equipment, making sure we have all communications programmed, getting chow, loading coolers with ice, water, and gatorade, and then giving a patrol brief. This concludes a few hours later at which point we go and pick up the specific PRT members that are the focus for the mission of the day. Today we got to the location right on time because we ran into a lot of Sunday traffic going through downtown Basra (pictures to come). We were there for an eventful 3 hours. During the time we were sitting waiting for the meeting to conclude, I decided not to go in but to stay in the street with the vehicles, it was quite exciting. My interpreter didn't get a chance to eat breakfast so he asked if he could walk down the street to a hole in the wall falafel joint. I went with him as his security element with one of my other soldiers because I wanted to walk around and talk to people, see what this little store was like, and try to make a positive American influence. First I must say, the falafel was delicious and my terp brought back one for everyone in my truck, a very generous gesture although 6 falafels cost him only 3 dollars. While in the store they were very talkative and gracious that we stopped by, taking pictures with us and of us, I got pictures of a bunch of Iraqi Police that were hanging out in the store drinking chai. It was very interesting and a great experience, every time we go back to that site I will be stopping by to say hi and grab some good local grub to eat. Hopefully I don't have any ill effects tomorrow in the latrine! After that we went back to the trucks to wait some more and we saw an incredible sight. 11 cows walked past us randomly, all by themselves, wild to say the least, in the middle of the road. Nobody even cared! Then to make it more incredible, they stopped and started eating trash off the sidewalk and off the street. Not grass mind you they were like scavengers eating trash, TRASH, that was just thrown in the streets and on the sidewalk and in the gutter. It was incredible I was dumbfounded. I got a picture of them too because I just could not even believe it. After that nothing really interesting happened while on the missions.

Later on this afternoon after we had already returned, debriefed, eaten lunch chow, and I had completed the plan for tomorrow an issue came up. I have a soldier whose wife is pregnant with their first child and we have been trying to get him home for the past week so he can be there for the birth. He is getting thrown around and given excuses left and right as to why they cant let him go and its really a shame to see they way the system is turning against the soldier. The Army always talks about how important the soldiers and their families are yet when something can be done that's simple and would not affect our ability to operate, they decide not to act. We have been trying to get his family and the doctor to send an appropriate red cross message that is worded in they way he needs to justify him going home but its not happening. Not to mention the case got more serious when her water broke over 24 hours ago and now she is high risk for infection and they will have to do an emergency operation. Its really hard because I don't understand what it is he is going through and as much as I try to explain the reasons for why he keeps getting denied the ability to get leave, it doesn't sit well with anyone. Its just one of the difficulties of being young and in charge of guys that not only are older but also are in completely different stages of their lives than I am. Luckily I have NCOs that support one another and I can rely on to be their for him but it just pains me knowing there is little to nothing I can do for him and to help out his situation.

Well I don't want to end on a negative note so I'll end with a joke ... please excuse the foul word at the end of it.

"An organization is like a tree full of monkeys, all on different limbs at different levels. Some monkeys are climbing up, some down. The monkeys on top look down and see a tree full of smiling faces. The monkeys on the bottom look up and see nothing but butt-holes."